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The Last Screenwriter did not have its film canceled or banned. The Prince Charles Cinema withdrew its planned public London screening, scheduled for June 23, 2024, after objections to a film credited to ChatGPT 4.0 as screenwriter. Director Peter Luisi said the cinema reported about 200 complaints. The Swiss film was later released free online; its makers say the AI generated the screenplay text, while humans conceived the experiment, prompted the system, selected and shortened material, and made the film.
What is The Last Screenwriter?
The Last Screenwriter is a 72-minute English-language Swiss fiction film directed by Peter Luisi and produced by Peter and David Luisi. Nicholas Pople plays Jack, a successful screenwriter who encounters an AI system that seems able to match or surpass his storytelling. Bonnie Milnes plays Sarah, and Anna Arthur voices the AI system. The film is deliberately self-referential: its story about a screenwriter confronting machine-generated competition was itself built around a screenplay credited to ChatGPT 4.0. Swiss Films lists the film’s credits, runtime and distribution status.
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What was canceled—and what was not
The Prince Charles Cinema in London had advertised a public screening for June 23, 2024, billed as the film’s world premiere. After audience objections, the cinema withdrew that event. The distinction matters: this was the cancellation of a planned public London screening, not a ban on the movie or the end of its release. Contemporary reporting described the event as privately booked but open to the public. A private screening for the cast and crew was still expected, and the filmmakers later made the film available online. The Guardian reported the cinema’s decision and its stated rationale.
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#1 Best Overall
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Color; DVD; NTSC
How many complaints were there?
Luisi told The Daily Beast that the cinema reported roughly 40 complaints after its first promotional post and another 160 overnight. That is the source of the widely repeated figure of about 200. It is an attributed account, not an independently audited tally. Nor does it establish that all screenwriters, film-industry workers or cinema audiences opposed the project. The Daily Beast’s account details the reported complaint numbers.
Was the screenplay really written entirely by AI?
The film’s official credit names “ChatGPT 4.0” as screenwriter, and its makers describe it as a feature written entirely by AI. That description needs context. The filmmakers’ own account shows a process involving human creative decisions at several stages:
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- A person chose the experiment and premise. Luisi proposed a story about a screenwriter realizing he was less capable than AI.
- Humans prompted the model repeatedly. ChatGPT was asked to develop characters, an outline, scenes, twists and dialogue. The screenplay was not produced in one prompt; the project says the model’s output-length limits required additional instructions.
- Humans selected and shortened material. The filmmakers say they chose among generated scenes and cut material to shape the script.
- The film was made by people. The cast and crew performed, directed, shot, edited, mixed and produced the movie.
The makers say they did not rewrite the dialogue, combine or rearrange scenes, or add their own story ideas to the screenplay. They also acknowledge that Luisi’s support and the selection and shortening process influenced it. A precise description, then, is that the screenplay is credited to ChatGPT 4.0 and, according to the filmmakers, its text was not rewritten by a human—but the experiment was framed and shaped through substantial human input. The project’s account of its goals and production and its screenplay-process explanation set out those qualifications.
“AI-written” also does not mean “AI-made.” The available project documentation describes AI use in the screenplay, not in the film’s images, performances, editing or other production work. The project’s “first feature film written entirely by AI” wording should likewise be treated as the makers’ claim, not as a verified historical first.
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Why did the screening provoke such a strong reaction?
The dispute was about more than one film. In the wake of the 2023 Hollywood writers’ strike, questions about AI protections, consent, authorship and job security were prominent in the entertainment industry. For critics of the project, presenting an AI-credited screenplay at a cinema could look like normalizing the displacement or devaluation of human writers, even if its makers intended an experiment rather than a replacement plan. The Guardian’s coverage places the controversy in that labor context.
Luisi and his producers described the film as a not-for-profit experiment: a way to test whether an AI system could generate a feature-length screenplay and to prompt discussion about creative work. They said it was not an argument that screenwriters should be replaced, and that they intended to share the film and process freely. That intention did not settle the disagreement. To opponents, the implications of the method mattered more than the filmmakers’ stated motive; to the filmmakers, making the process visible was part of the experiment.
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- Format: DVD
- Language: English
- Subtitle: English, Korean, None (All removable)
- Region Code: Region 0 (1/2/3/4/5/6)
- Screen: NTSC / Wide Screen Color
What the film’s process—and reported criticism—can show
The project is not a clean test of whether a machine can make a movie independently. Humans selected the premise, guided the model through repeated prompts, chose and shortened its output, and translated the screenplay into a finished production. That does not erase the experiment, but it makes “AI replaces the writer” too simple a conclusion. The film illustrates both the model’s role in generating text and the human judgment needed to frame, curate and produce that text.
There was also criticism of the screenplay’s characterization. Actor Bonnie Milnes said the AI-generated role of Sarah lacked depth and was defined too heavily by her relationship with Jack. That is one cast member’s assessment, not a consensus review of the film, but it points to a specific question audiences can consider: whether the generated story gives its characters enough independent motivation and complexity. Time Out’s interviews with the director and cast discuss both the backlash and that criticism.
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Where to watch The Last Screenwriter
The film was released free online. Its official site says it became available on the site and YouTube on July 5, 2024. A contemporaneous Daily Beast report gave July 11 as the planned online-release date; the official film page records July 5 as the release date. The official film page and project homepage provide access to the film and related materials.
The project also publishes information about how the screenplay was developed and offers documentation, including screenplay resources and a press kit. See the screenplay page and documentation and downloads. Swiss Films lists the title as “In distribution” and records later festival activity, but that listing alone does not establish a broad theatrical release.
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